"In 1985, there was still a ravenous hunger for anything that vaguely reminded people of the original Star Wars, but the films that attempted to meet this need were all over the place. The most obvious rip-offs came out quickly, with the shlocky 1978 film probably the most infamous. But weirder derivations emerged in the 1980s, and the nearly-forgotten animated film Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is, without a doubt, the oddest and most unsettling."
"Starchaser tells the story of Orin, who looks like a mixture of Luke Skywalker and the 1980s cartoon He-Man. Like many other humans, he toils underground in a mine, working for someone called "the Mind Master" who's also called Zygon (no relation to the Doctor Who aliens). Zygon wears a Vader-esque mask at first, but when Orin starts a revolt, Zygon reveals a purple, evil-looking face. Then, in an extremely dark moment, Zygon strangles Orin's girlfriend, Elan."
"This is all you need to understand about Starchaser. The slaying of Elan would be like if Princess Leia was murdered in Star Wars' opening moments, and then the heroes just found someone new to care about. It's a baffling choice, and Starchaser doubles down on the misogynistic with a trip to a planet where animated prostitutes take the place of goofy cantina creatures."
Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is a nearly-forgotten 1980s animated film that borrows story beats from Star Wars while adding a seedy, unsettling tone. The plot follows Orin, a mine worker who resembles Luke Skywalker and He-Man, as he revolts against a masked tyrant called Zygon. The film includes sudden violence, including the strangling of Orin's girlfriend, and depicts sexualized planets, animated prostitutes, homophobic jokes, and a reprogrammed female robot called Silica. The tonal mix makes the target audience unclear and produces a disturbing blend of adventure, exploitation, and dated attitudes.
Read at Inverse
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